Results/Photos

Date: Feb. 1, 2026 Participant: Lijie Qin #20483 Race: 2026 Surf City Marathon Distance: 26.2 miles

Consistent Start, Managing the Marathon's Second Half Lijie Qin demonstrated a strong beginning at the 2026 Surf City Marathon, starting with a promising pace. Her initial 1-mile split was an impressive 7:30 at a pace of 7:30 min/mile, securing the first place in her division, F30-34, early in the race. By the 5th mile, her pace slightly increased to 7:44 min/mile, but she maintained competitive standings. At this point, she had secured the top position in her division, despite an overall finish of 275th. During the second half, Lijie's pace gradually slowed, with the most notable transition occurring from the 17th to 24th miles, where her pace ranged from 9:20 to 10:29 min/mile. Her overall elapsed time was 3:49:23, completing the marathon with an average pace of 8:45 min/mile. Encouragingly, her final 1-mile split saw an improvement to 8:58 min/mile, showing resilience to finish strong. Focusing on maintaining the pace through the middle miles could offer significant performance gains.